But today Locke's writings are used by a diverse assortment of organizations to bolster or justify their positions. The National Rifle Association (NRA) (www.nra.org) uses the 137th paragraph of Locke's Second Treatise on Government as an authoritative source to bolster the NRA's position on the right to bear arms. "Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases," Locke wrote. The John Locke Foundation (http://www.johnlocke.org),a think-tank in North Carolina, uses their perceptions of Locke's philosophy to promote a conservative agenda; for example, the group is opposed to the "costly, immoral, and destructive welfare state," and is against "government corruption and wasteful spending." The foundation quotes from Locke's Second Treatise on Government: "...every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his..."

Locke had a marvelous way of putting the human condition into simple yet profound terms; for instance, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (III. vi. 9), Locke wrote: "Though the familiar use of the Things about us, takes off our Wonder; yet it cures not our ignorance." And further, in his Second Treatise of Civil Government, in addressing human and civil rights vs. government tyranny, Locke explained that "...he that will not just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it...most of necessity find another rise of government, another original of political power..."

According to the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University, Locke's Two Treatises on Civil Government "quickly established him as the leading philosopher of freedom. He distinguished "the primary qualities of things...

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Institute for Learning Technologies. "John Locke: Two Treatises on Civil Government.." Accessed 13 Feb. 2005. Available at http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/locke/bio_JL.html.

Jayne, Allen. "Jefferson's Philosophical Wall of Separation." The Humanist 59.1 (1999):

Roney, Stephen K. "Religion and Rights." Catholic Insight 12.1 (2004): 30-33.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "John Locke (1632-1704)." Accessed 12 Feb. 2005. Available at http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm.

The John Locke Foundation. "About the John Locke Foundation." Accessed 11 Feb. 2005. Available at http://www.johnlocke.org/about.

The Quotations Page. "John Locke (1632-1704) English empiricist philosopher." Available at http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Locke/.